owners - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T10:57:44Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/ownersBoynton Beach: Riverwalk owners want more height for apartmentshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boynton-beach-riverwalk-owners-want-more-height-for-apartments2016-05-04T17:21:58.000Z2016-05-04T17:21:58.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong><br /><br /> The owners of the Riverwalk Plaza are proceeding with their plans to convert the aging waterfront shopping center into a mixed-use project dominated by rental apartments.<br /> They plan to ask for a variance to be able to build 10 stories, with the first two floors dedicated for a parking garage. In that area, on the southeast corner of Federal Highway and Woolbright Road with the Intracoastal Waterway on the east, Boynton Beach zoning code allows only 75 feet or seven stories. <br /> City staff have suggested widening the apartment buildings so that they won’t need the extra height or creating “view corridors” to allow passers-by to see the Intracoastal Waterway.<br /> But Isram Realty, of Hallandale, insists neither can be done. Walgreen’s with its long-term lease and extensions “has rights to the parking area” for 42 years, said Steve Wherry, Riverwalk’s land use attorney. <br /> View corridors also are not possible without constructing a taller building, Wherry said. Isram needs to have the 326 units to make project financially feasible. Fewer units would lead to higher rental rates and they “are not supported in this market,” he said.<br /> Isram, which submitted plans to the city in December, hopes to have a review before the city’s Planning and Development Board in May and then onto the City Commission in late June. David Katz, an ally of former Mayor Jerry Taylor, chairs the board. Taylor was the mayor when Isram filed its plans.<br /> The Riverwalk project is in the third review step, which is not unusual given the project’s size and outstanding questions, said Michael Rumpf, planning director.<br /> If the project stays on its current schedule, the city staff analysis would be completed May 20 and the board review on May 24, according to Rumpf, who provided answers via city spokeswoman Eleanor Krusell. <br />If all the issues are not resolved, board review would take place on June 28. Then it would go to the City Commission in July.<br /> Staff have considered amending the height standard to allow for additional height for Riverwalk, which is “within areas identified as ‘nodes’ ” in the CRA plans that are being updated, Rumpf said. Isram would need to satisfy the intent of the mixed-use regulations and land use compatibility while minimizing impacts on adjoining properties.<br /><br /><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Few details provided</span> <br /> Wherry and Isram principals, including founder Shaul Rikman and Riverwalk’s architect, attended a late March community forum, sponsored by the Boynton Coalition for Responsible Development.<br /> More than 300 residents who live on both sides of the Intracoastal attended to learn more about the project. Isram brought a court reporter, promised to address all of the issues and provide responses to the group. Only Wherry spoke, but he did not provide details about the project.<br /> Isram spent about $300,000 on architectural drawings and was losing approximately $600,000 a year in rental income after Winn-Dixie left the center, Wherry told the crowd. <br />“That’s close to $1 million Isram invested into the possibilities that are for Boynton Beach,” he said. “The allowance for increased height will be narrowly drafted and tailored to our location.”<br /> Most of the residents who attended were concerned about the height of the project, the traffic it would generate and that its rental nature would attract transients.<br /> “The developer didn’t talk about the project,” said Harry Woodworth, president of Inlet Communities Association in Boynton Beach. He thinks city staff will “literally change the code to make it fit.”<br /> He’s frustrated that the city would allow a 10-story project in that area. “I don’t want the process to be negotiated,” he said. “I want the city to get back to following its master plan and zoning codes.”<br /> After the forum, Rikman said, “There is a lot of misinformation. The residents don’t have the true facts.”<br /> A few weeks later, Wherry said Isram would provide responses to officials at the public meetings this summer. “Those who have opposed the project had their voices heard,” he said.<br /> At the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency meeting in April, its executive director, Vivian Brooks, didn’t update the new commissioners on Riverwalk because all had said they attended the community forum. <br /> “Staff comments have gone back to the developer after the (city’s development application review team) meeting,” said Brooks. “I’m not sure when the developer will return them and another DART meeting would be scheduled.”<br /> Woodworth told the CRA board members that his group believes Riverwalk is being rushed through the process. “May 24 is the date when they plan to take it to the Planning and Development Board,” he said. “This project is going like a freight train with every avenue for public input shut down.” <br /> The Boynton Coalition for Responsible Development met with Isram principals, Wherry and city staff on April 22, hoping residents’ concerns could be addressed. <br /> None of the dozen issues raised was deemed to be valid nor did the developer agree to modify its plan, according to the Boynton Coalition statement issued April 28.</p></div>Along the Coast: New owners, same old-school style at Seaside Delihttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-new-owners-same-old-school-style-at-seaside-deli2014-04-30T19:30:00.000Z2014-04-30T19:30:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960510263,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960510263,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960510263?profile=original" /></a></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>Richie Podvesker, deli master of the store, directs a customer to the beer collection while handling the sandwich orders of a dozen customers at a time. He has been making subs and other meals for more than 21 years.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>By Paula Detwiller</strong><br /> <br /> The roadside deli you know and love has changed hands. <br /> But don’t worry. The pair of hands you care most about — the ones that make your favorite submarine sandwich — aren’t going anywhere. And according to the new owner, not much else will change, either.<br /> You’ll still be able to pick up a No. 19 (turkey, avocado, swiss, honey mustard, lettuce and tomato on a kaiser roll), a six-pack of Red Stripe, some shoestrings, motor oil and a cake mix. You’ll still hear Frank Sinatra tunes while picking out your purchases. And all those autographed celebrity photos will remain on the wood-paneled walls.<br /> The Seaside Deli and Market, located on A1A a half-mile south of Woolbright Road, is the barrier island’s upscale, old school convenience store. It’s also the only “food-to-go” place along A1A from Manalapan down to Delray Beach. <br /> So when the owner (who asked that we not name him in this story), quietly sold the business early last month, some may have wondered about its fate.<br /> “I don’t know what the neighborhood would do without this place,” says Gulf Stream resident and deli regular Gene Jankowski, who was dropping in to order his usual tuna salad and cole slaw. “Richie’s the best.”<br /> That would be Richie Podvesker, 41, son of the owner and the face of the deli counter for the past 21 years. He too shies away from talking about himself, except to blurt out a very telling individual statistic.<br /> “I can knock out a sandwich every 42 seconds,” he says.<br /> And that’s a good thing, because long lines can form at the deli counter around lunchtime, particularly on sunny days. <br /> “I drove up here from Pompano today just to see Richie,” says former Ocean Ridge resident Michael Homer, getting in line. “He’s been my buddy for the longest time, and he makes a great sandwich.” <br /> Homer orders a No. 11, chicken salad with bacon.<br /> In addition to “Richie’s Special Sandwiches,” all 38 of them, the Seaside sells more than 200 different beers; old-fashioned soda in glass bottles (Squirt, birch beer, cream soda); and homemade take-out dinners: baked ziti, barbecue pork, Italian meatballs, soups and quiche.<br /> There’s an entire aisle of candy, and if you run out of toilet paper, cat food, hairspray, or champagne, they’ve got that too.<br /> Richie’s brother Hughie worked here for a time, from 1993 to 2001, which explains the double billing on the sign. He ended up going back to the family’s native New Jersey. <br /> “It wasn’t his thing,” Richie’s dad says.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960510088,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960510088,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="159" alt="7960510088?profile=original" /></a><em>Kevin Belliard, son of new owner Rafael Belliard, is already working on the books.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>A new family takes over</strong><br /> The Seaside’s new owners are 28-year-old Kevin Belliard, who manages the store, and his parents, Rafael and Leonora. Originally from the Dominican Republic, Rafael Belliard played major league baseball in the 1980s and ’90s, first for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and later for the Atlanta Braves. He’s now an assistant adviser to the general manager of the Kansas City Royals. <br /> Kevin graduated from American Heritage School in Delray Beach and went on to play four years of college baseball (one year at Southern University in Baton Rouge, the rest at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach). After graduation, he coached baseball at Alabama A&M University before joining the business world, managing an AT&T retail store, and then a Boca Raton Taco Bell for the past two years. <br /> He and his fiancée, Gladys Rodriguez, live in Boca Raton and have a 2-year-old son named Kevin Alexander Jr. <br /> “We’d been looking around for a business to buy,” says Kevin. “From day one, when we saw this store, we fell in love with it. I like how everything feels like you’re maybe in a 1960s or ’70s movie and it hasn’t changed much. It goes with the surf shop next door.”<br /> What does he like best?<br /> “The customers. Everyone who comes in feels like family. The regulars all know my name already. It reminds me of the bodegas in the Dominican Republic. Everyone knows the employees, and you go there because it’s convenient and close to home,” he says.<br /> Kevin says he’s not making any personnel changes.<br /> “It’ll be Richie’s Seaside Deli and Market as long as he wants to stay here. I kid you not, he makes the best subs I ever tried.”<br /> Kevin talks about the uniqueness of the market, with so many items all in one place, and a history of attracting celebrities. Richie’s dad confirms some of the big names: Jimmy Buffett. Mariah Carey. David Caruso. And athletes like one-handed pitcher Jim Abbott, hockey legend Mario Lemieux, NBA star Jim Jackson.<br /> “The deli’s been here a long time and been very successful,” Kevin says. “We’re keeping everything the same.” <br /> He pauses. “I am looking to move to the island, though. I would gladly give up a grass backyard in Boca to be near the sand of the beach.” <em><br /></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960509869,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960509869,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960509869?profile=original" /></a></em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960509869,original{{/staticFileLink}}"></a> <em>Richie’s dad with Hughie and Richie at the counter of the Seaside Deli in 1993. <strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960510455,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960510455,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960510455?profile=original" /></a></strong><em>Prepackaged meals fill one of the many coolers.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960510097,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960510097,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960510097?profile=original" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>The gator head at the cash register has been lending pennies to customers for decades.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960509895,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960509895,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="188" alt="7960509895?profile=original" /></a>The walls of the store are covered with autographed photos and a collection of Polaroids featuring smiling customers.</em></p>
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<p style="text-align:center;"></p></div>Real Estate: New condos moving quickly to completionhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/real-estate-new-condos-moving-quickly-to-completion2013-04-03T15:03:17.000Z2013-04-03T15:03:17.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960441280,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960441280,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960441280?profile=original" /></a><em>The pool at 4001 North Ocean overlooks the ocean.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em><strong>Inset below:</strong> Movers with the White Lion Moving unload parts</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>of a bedroom suite for a new owner at 4001.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p>By Christine Davis<br /> <br />A new 43-unit condominium, 4001 North Ocean in Gulf Stream, has just completed two furnished models and is in the process of delivering the building to unit owners.<br />Yes. Unit owners. You read that right.<br /> All that’s left for sale are seven condominium residences, including two penthouses. The four-bedroom, 4½-bath penthouses have 4,900 square feet, and the other units, with an average of 3,000 square feet, vary from two-bedroom, 2½- bath units with a den, to three bedroom, 3½-bath units. Prices range from $2.2 million to $5.1 million.<br /> Located on approximately 3½ acres, the six-story complex, a $70 million project — conceived after the boom — was developed by the Kolter Group, designed by Randall Stofft Architects and Roger Fry & Associates Architects, and built by Kast Construction.<br /> Kolter bought the land in 2009, after the old Sea Horse Bath and Tennis Club had been demolished. The property was in foreclosure.<br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960440879,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960440879,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="314" alt="7960440879?profile=original" /></a> “Good market, bad market, there wasn’t any land like this available. It was a unique piece of property and we were intrigued by it,” said Bob Vail, president of Kolter Urban, the condominium division of Kolter. “The only other condominium developed remotely recently that I know of was 1000 Ocean in Boca Raton. Palm Beach won’t allow heights, nor will Gulf Stream. There are a lot of barriers to entry.”<br /> Even though they believed in the project and thought the market would improve by the time the condos were finished, it did take a certain amount of courage.<br /> “It’s difficult to sell high-end residential off paper and we knew that going in,” Vail said. “What we could count on, though, is once the building could be seen, that the public would appreciate the building’s design, views, quality, etc. and we are pleased at the response from those buying our product.”<br /> The timing turned out to be good, he noted. “In the middle of the project, our property was part of an unincorporated county pocket that was annexed by Gulf Stream. We didn’t anticipate that, although we welcomed it. The town of Gulf Stream has been tough but fair with us, and we’ve been a conscientious developer, and hope the town views us that way.”<br /> To that end, they aimed to build a project that would fit into the local community. “We went out of our way to keep to the Bermuda style of architecture popular in the area. We’ve been told that we have succeeded with that and we are proud about it. We are happy that we could deliver something that most of the residents in the area don’t view as a negative and view as a positive. People who live in that area are passionate about their neighborhood and that’s how it should be.”<br /> Just recently, Kolter has submitted plans for permits for villas on the west side of A1A, across the street from the condominiums. One building will have two villas and a second building will have three villas. “They are like single-family homes with common walls between them and will have between 3,600 and 4,000 square feet. We hope to complete construction by the end of the year,” Vail said.<br /> The Kolter Group, a private investment firm out of Toronto that came to Florida in the early 1990s, now has headquarters in West Palm Beach. Although 4001 North Ocean is the company’s only beachfront condominium development, the company plans to build three waterfront condominiums: Water Club North Palm Beach, Water Club Snell Isle in St. Petersburg and an unnamed development in Sarasota.</p></div>